Not applicable
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the organizing and maintaining the organized arrangement of cable ducts used to protectively house utility cables along a subterranean plantation site and more particularly the present invention relates to apparatus spiral wrap a bundle of such conduct ducts after the ducts are organized into a predetermined bundle formation.
2. Description of the Prior Art It is well known to place telephone communication cable and electric utility cable under ground along a course to service consumers. It is a common practice to place the cable in a buried cable duct to protect the cable from adverse conditions at the placement site and to allow replacement of the utility cable without the need expose the sub-grade along the intended course of underground placement. The placement of cable particularly along a utility corridor usually requires creating a trench of a width and depth sufficient to accommodate the collection of cable duct and then back fill the trench to form an earth barrier of protection. The cable duct usually does not contain cable when placed in the trench but the cable is installed at a later time. Well known forms of the cable include light guide cable for telecommunications and shielded metal conduits for an electrical utility. A relatively large number of cable ducts are usually placed in the trench particularly when the course of the installation is in a utility corridor. The cable ducts are relatively light weight per unit of length as compared to metal sheath cable. Well known composition of the cable duct consist of plastic material made with sufficient plasticizer to impart needed flexibility to the duct for accommodating undulations of the trench bottom. The flexibility of the conduits and made with polyethylene material to impart low friction characteristics complicates the placement operation due to the unstable nature of the collection of cable ducts in the trench. Identifying particular cable ducts to complete the installation of cable particularly for branching at junction areas of the ducts is time consuming particularly due to the unorganized relation to the cable ducts in the trench.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an apparatus to spiral wrap a bundle of conduits incident to subterranean placement of the bundle of conduit ducts.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide an apparatus embodying a robust design of component parts sufficient for allowing traveling movement of the apparatus along a trenching site to spiral wrap a multiplicity of conduit ducts for immediate placement in an exposed trench and allow back filling of the trench without unearthed displacement to any of the conduit ducts.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a tandem arrangement of a pattern, supply roller, applicator and delivery roller units to form a bundle of conduit ducts with a predetermined geometric configuration and spiral wrap the bundle for subterranean placement.
It is another object of the present invention to establish a predetermined conduit identification for a geometric configuration of conduit ducts and provide a pattern, supply roller and applicator units to arrange conduit ducts according to the predetermined geometric configuration and spiral wrap the conduit ducts for subterranean placement.
According to the present invention there is provided an apparatus to apply a spiral wrap to a bundle of conduit ducts, the apparatus including a frame rotatably supported by a rotator driven by a drive for rotation about a central axis extending perpendicular to the plane of rotation by the rotator, the rotator having an internal passageway of a size sufficient for the internal passage of an elongated bundle of conduit ducts arranged in a preestablished geometrical array along the axis which is generally parallel with the extended length of the elongated bundle of conduit ducts, a tape support arbor secured to the rotator for rotatably supporting binding tape, the tape support arbor being driven by the rotator in an orbit about the axis, and a tape guide supported by the arbor to extend generally radially toward a geometrical array of conduit ducts as advanced through the internal passageway of the rotator for directing the binding tape from the tape support arbor to wrap in a spiral fashion about the outer periphery of the bundle of conduit ducts.
A further aspect of the present invention provides an apparatus to spiral wrap a bundle of conduit ducts, the apparatus including a tandem arrangement of a pattern unit, a supply roller unit, an applicator unit and a delivery roller unit supported by a base, the pattern unit having a frame supporting vertically spaced apart slats forming horizontal rows of generally rectangular slots subdivided by vertical walls to form rows of discrete apertures for delivering conduit ducts at spatial positions, each of the supply roller unit and delivery roller unit having a frame supporting spaced apart upper and lower carriers and spaced apart lateral carriers with each carrier rotatably supporting a roller, the rollers of the carriers being positioned by the carriers to define a predetermined geometric passageway bounded by opposed rollers, the supply roller unit organizing conduit ducts received from the pattern unit to conform to the geometric passageway and the delivery roller unit supporting a geometric array of wrapped conduit ducts discharged from the applicator unit, and the applicator unit having a frame rotatably supported by a rotator driven by a drive for rotation about a central axis extending perpendicular to the plane of rotation by the rotator, the rotator having an internal passageway of a size sufficient for the internal passage of an elongated bundle of conduit ducts arranged in a preestablished geometrical array along the axis which is generally parallel with the extended length of the elongated bundle of conduit ducts, a tape support arbor secured to the rotator for rotatably supporting binding tape, the tape support arbor being driven by the rotator in an orbit about the axis, and a tape guide supported by the arbor to extend generally radially toward a geometrical array of conduit ducts as advanced through the internal passageway of the rotator for directing the binding tape from the tape support arbor to wrap in a spiral fashion about the outer periphery of the bundle of conduit ducts.